My Thoughts: We meet both the title characters of
this book, Jake and Leanne in BDS, but it’s not necessary to have read that one
first.Jake is the 2 day older brother
of the hero Sam of the first book.He’s
pretty bitter and with reason.His
mother was the mistress of Sam’s father who was married to Sam’s mother.He married Jake’s mother off to a real SOB
who had no qualms in letting Jake know he was unwanted.While part of him resents Sam for being the
son with the golden goose, part of him also knows that Sam had nothing to do
with circumstances.Indeed, when Jake
announced who he was, Sam broke of the relationship with his father.This all happened in the first book.

This book opens up just after the wedding of Sam and
Eve from the first book.Jake was a jerk
and gave a not so brotherly kiss to Eve and Sam had punched him.Eve’s best friend Leanne followed him outside
to ring a peal over his head for being such a jerk at his brother’s wedding and
makes him leave.But not before he
flirts outrageously with her.Of course
this even steams her more, but she does admit, if only to herself, that while
he is a pain in the ass, he is one fine looking pain.

They next run into each other when Jake has been
arrested and called Sam to come bail him out.Sam is still on his honeymoon, but Leanne gets the message as she’s
doing a bit of cat sitting and comes to bail him out.Again he flirts outrageously with him and
while she finds him disturbingly good looking, she still doesn’t jump at his
charms.But when he keeps popping up to
rescue her from attacks and stuff, she does admit to the attraction between
them and it isn’t long before nature takes its course.

I really, really liked this book too.Jake is about as opposite as they come from
Sam.Sam is relaxed and easy going
whereas Jake is more of the bad boy kind of hero, though he isn’t a bad boy at
all.He had a rough upbringing and
joined the army.After his stint there,
he became a cop until he moved to the town as Sam and opened up his own private
detective agency.He and Sam are still
working on their relationship and at this point they seem to relate more by
Jake getting punched by Sam for various offenses.But Jake figures he deserves most of them,
the chip on his shoulder being what it is.

He’s gone for Leanne in a very short period time but
doesn’t feel like he’s good enough for her, though he will take what he can get
and be grateful for it.He sees through
her mask more than most people though he’s still taken in at first.

Leanne makes for a great heroine in her own
right.She also had a lousy
childhood.Her mother was a flaky single
mother and Leanne was more the mother role. She holds no bitterness, in fact is
grateful to her mother for passing on a passion for color and design.Leanne is a successful interior decorator, though
she works for a real prince of a fellow – not.She’s kind of going out with him though it’s not serious at all and as
time goes on and she begins to compare him to Jake, she sees she has to write
him off.He doesn’t seem to care about
her and all and undermines her constantly.

Growing up poor, she has a certain picture in her
head of what she wants and Jake’s not it.But she does see him for the great hero he really has turned out to be.

This was a nice light read with very likeable
characters.I’m so glad I’ve found
Leslie Kelly again and I do believe I will be doing some ‘shopping’ to get more
of her backlist.I can’t ask for
anything better than that.